The Greene County School System is committed to maintaining the highest standards of teaching and learning this year while prioritizing the health and safety of our students and staff. 

We are pleased to share with you our proposed Return to School Plan for this fall, which combines face-to-face instruction and distance learning with preventative health and safety measures in our schools to ensure an effective, safe, and consistent learning environment for everyone. This plan will be presented to the Board of Education in more detail at the Board’s regular meeting on Monday, July 13^th, at which time the Board will accept public comment on the plan. 

The Georgia Department of Public Health divides the state’s counties into three categories based on their level of COVID-19 spread: Low/No Spread, Minimal/Moderate Spread, and Substantial Spread. The district's Return to School Task Force has developed school reopening plans for each of these levels, as you can see in the attached infographic. 

Currently, Greene County falls into the Minimal/Moderate Spread category. Therefore, the Greene County School System plans to implement Option 2 as outlined in the below graphic when we return to school on August 17th. This plan, based on stakeholder feedback from our parent and staff surveys and recommendations from the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Department of Public Health, provides face-to-face instruction for Pk-3rd grade on a rotating on-campus schedule and distance learning for 4th-12th grades with opportunities for supplemental small group instruction in-person at their school buildings. 

"Returning to School 2020-2021" - download the accessible version here." 

Please understand that if Greene County’s level of COVID-19 spread changes as indicated by the Georgia Department of Public Health, our return to school plan may change as well. All plans are tentative in these rapidly-changing times.

Our preference would be to return to school with full-time, face-to-face teaching and learning for all students, if we could do so with low risk to the health and safety of our students and staff. However, in anticipation of implementing the hybrid model laid out in Option 2, we are installing a variety of practical health safety measures to protect our students on the bus and in their school buildings, in an effort to accommodate as much face-to-face instruction as possible. 

These safeguards include:

• Additional hand-washing stations throughout our schools
• Plexiglass partitions installed in our lunchroom service lines and between the sinks in our restrooms
• Additional hand sanitizer stations across our campuses
• Touchless water bottle refill stations
• Handheld no-contact temperature scanners
• Touchless temperature measurement kiosks
• Rearranging our classrooms to facilitate social distancing
• Limiting the number of adults in each building by restricting visitor and volunteer access
• Enhanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures by our custodial team to keep all surfaces continuously sanitized
• Alternative class scheduling and instructional delivery methods to reduce the number of students and staff in any one space

Please look for further information coming soon from your student’s principal regarding school-specific instructions for beginning the new school year. Once again, we appreciate your support as we all work together to provide a quality educational experience to the students of Greene County.